To say that I grew up on bread is probably an understatement. Growing up, my dad worked for a bread company in San Francisco called Boudin Bakery for anyone reading in the Bay Area! Every night, he would bring home a bag of baguettes for us to nibble on before dinner. Nibble, eat a whole baguette… eh same thing right? It became such a habit that when we would go to an Italian restaurant I would just eat the bread basket and not touch my entree. My connection to bread was so intense, I even bought a bread phone case that had baguettes on it. Don’t judge.

I love bread so much that I studied abroad in Paris for a summer just so I could get my hands on some of the best bread in the world! Ok, kidding… but it was a huge perk of living in Paris. I would eat a baguette with cheese for lunch and a baguette (or two) for dinner with meat or hummus. It was the best summer of my life, and Paris wasn’t too shabby either.

Fast forward about 15 years and 1,589 baguettes later. I’ve recently been listening to a lot of health podcasts lately because I’m in the process of becoming a wellness coach, and the ongoing theme is to really listen to your body. So I thought I would give it a go and listen to how my body feels after I eat certain foods. This turned out to be great news for me, terrible news for bread.

I realized that when I ate bread, I always felt really bloated and sluggish. The biggest problem though was it never fully filled me up. I always felt like I could eat more bread, which can be quite dangerous when you’ve already tackled a full baguette to yourself in 30 minutes.

So a few months ago I decided to do what I considered unthinkable and give up bread, potatoes (I still eat sweet potatoes) and pasta. Now let me breakdown how these 3 foods alone are so big in my life. I have some Italian blood in me so I grew up on pasta, my boyfriend is Irish and they eat potatoes on the daily, and you just learned about my relationship with bread for the past 25 years. So to me, giving up these 3 foods seemed impossible, but I did it and my body is thanking me for it.

I’m not saying bread, potatoes or pasta are bad, but for me, it wasn’t a healthy relationship. Everyone is different and people react differently to food, which is something I’ve really started to learn over this past year seeing friends struggle with gluten and diary allergies.​It’s important that we start listening to our bodies more. Try thinking about how certain foods make you feel after you eat. Do you feel bloated? Backed up? Tired? Or do you feel happy and full of energy? Your body can tell you so much, we just need to start listening!